HS: Centre continues slump, Greens take another step back in polls

Prime Minister Juha Sipilä (Centre) was pictured along with his party comrades entering a meeting of the Parliament’s Grand Committee on 18 October, 2017. The Centre Party has seen its support rating drop by 5.5 percentage points after winning the parliamentary elections of 2015.

The National Coalition has continued to solidify its status as the most supporter political party in Finland - writes helsinkitimes.fi.

Helsingin Sanomat published the results of its latest opinion poll on Saturday, reporting that the party would receive more than a fifth (21.9%) of the ballot if the parliamentary elections were held today.

The Centre Party, on the other hand, has seen its support slump to 15.4 per cent – 5.5 percentage points below its vote share in the parliamentary elections held in 2015.

Jouni Ovaska, the party secretary of the Centre Party, shifts the blame for the prolonged slump to the National Coalition. The Centre’s rural values, he gauged, have been overshadowed by the economic rhetoric of the National Coalition and the criticism levelled at the regional government reform by Jan Vapaavuori (NCP), the Mayor of Helsinki.

“There are forced that are trying to pit cities and rural areas […] against each other,” he stated in an interview with Lännen Media on Saturday .

“We’ve been alarmed by the comments of Jan Vapaavuori. Hopefully, we’ll be able to show and explain him how the establishment of counties would reduce administration considerably in comparison to the current situation.”

The Green League has similarly seen its support ebb away over the past few months. Helsingin Sanomat measured voter support for the second largest opposition party at 16.1 per cent, signalling a drop of 1.4 percentage points from mid-August.

Touko Aalto, the chairperson of the Green League, reminded that in spite of the recent drop, support for the party remains at a historically high level.

He also commented on the poll results byestimating that policy makers have been too inclined to shift responsibility for difficult decisions to others and by calling for a more level-headed public debate in Finland.

“It’s crucial to examine the society as a whole and keep the longer term in mind. If your strategy is only to attack others rather than to construct your own, sustainable long-term solutions, the public debate will become a restless theatre play. It gnaws away at the ability of decision makers to make and implement decisions,” he wrote on Facebook.

The Green League’s decline has coincided with the resurgence of the Social Democratic Party, which recorded a slight up-tick in support to 18.1 per cent to consolidate its status as the largest opposition party.

Both the Finns Party and Left Alliance saw their popularity increase slightly: the former is projected to win 9.3 per cent and the latter 8.2 per cent ballot. No notable changes were recorded in voter support for the Swedish People’s Party (3.3%) and Christian Democratic Party (4.4%).

The Blue Reform, in turn, would only receive 1.3 per cent of the vote if the elections were held today, reports Helsingin Sanomat.

A total of 2,416 people were interviewed for the poll between 18 September and 14 October, 2017.

The coach of a sports club in Hyvinkää, southern Finland has been remanded into police custody on suspicion of sexual abuse of minors he was coaching, the Itä-Uusimaa police department said on Thursday. Officials said that they are investigating the case as suspected child abuse but did not disclose the ages of the alleged victims. The suspect in the case, a 50-year-old man, was remanded into custody on Wednesday. The suspected sexual abuse is believed to...

Finns increasingly forego do-it-yourself construction of prefab elements in favour of completely completed homes. Turnkey homes (where homes are fully finished and owners can immediately occupy them) have become more popular than traditional house packages, says the Finnish Association for Manufacturers of Prefabricated Houses. “About 7,500 detached homes are built in Finland every year, and about 70 percent of them are prefabricated houses of some kind,”...

THE FESTIVE ATMOSPHERE in the Helsinki neighbourhood of Arabianranta was visibly subdued on Tuesday, as residents mourned the death of a local child who is believed to have been murdered. While little information has been released to the public, it is known that the victim was murdered near their home on the night of Christmas Eve (December 24). The police apprehended a suspect at the scene of the crime, who has been confirmed as a 36-year old male. Whethe...

One of Finland’s most famous seafaring vessels, the titanic icebreaker Otso, was deployed on its first mission of the winter season last night, keeping sea routes open for the 22nd year in a row. Late in the evening of Christmas Day, Otso, the crowning glory of Arctia Oy’s extensive fleet, departed from Helsinki’s Katajanokka Harbour, heading north to the Bay of Bothnia. The 7000-ton Polar icebreaker has been tasked with keeping waterways open between Oulu...

Eight Finnish political parties have published their a statement on future climate policy goals in Finland. Prime Minister Juha Sipilä (Centre) in November invited all nine parliamentary parties to join a task force established to find an agreement on new, more ambitious climate goals for Finland. The one-month project was led by Kimmo Tiilikainen (Centre), the Minister of the Environment, Energy and Housing. The Finns Party abandoned the task force last w...

A 25-year-old man suspected of the sexual abuse of a girl under the age of 15 in Oulu, northwestern Finland, who was arrested in Germany last Tuesday is now reported to be at large. According to law enforcement officials in Oulu, the suspect was released by German police before he could be transferred to Finnish custody due to "a breakdown in communication between authorities". Oulu District Court ordered the suspect to be reprimanded into custody in absen...

Finland’s high earners saw their real income grow more in 2017 than their peers in middle and low income groups, according to new data released by Statistics Finland on Tuesday. Incomes among the country’s highest income decile rose by 4.4 percent in 2017 compared to 2016, while the year-on-year increase was 1.3 percent for middle income earners. Incomes for the four lowest income deciles meanwhile grew by 1.2 percent over the one-year period. However amon...

A man wanted in connection with a suspected arson attempt on a home in Helsinki’s Käpylä district was remanded into police custody on Sunday. The Helsinki district court has remanded a man suspected of attempted arson and attempted murder into police custody, ending a short-lived manhunt, police said on Sunday. The 25 year-old is suspected of using a Molotov cocktail to cause a fire at a flat in Käpylä, Helsinki last Monday. The apartment was completely de...

Helsinki Central Library Oodi will opened its doors to the public on 5 December at 8am, a day before Finland’s 101st birthday. Designed by ALA Architects, this library of a new era is an ode to Finnish culture, equality and freedom of expression. Oodi offers everyone an open, public urban space at Kansalaistori Square, right opposite Parliament House. Central Library Oodi is an active and functional meeting point with 2.5 million expected annual visitors....